The Trump administration announced on Thursday that the U.S. had agreed to trade frameworks with Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala. The agreements, which are expected to be signed in the next two weeks, would provide tariff relief on select products, with a focus on those that the U.S. doesn’t produce.
Currently, Ecuador faces a 15 percent tariff, while the other three nations are tariffed at 10 percent each. Guatemala’s president Bernardo Arevalo, said 70 percent of his country’s exports to the U.S. would be tariff free.
Under these frameworks, the United States will remove reciprocal tariffs on products that qualify for the U.S./Dominican Republic-Central America FTA (CAFTA-DR).
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) announced its support for the announcements as they relate to El Salvador and Guatemala. The trade group said it would like to see the deals done quickly and similar agreements to follow with other CAFTA-DR nations.
“These actions bolster key U.S. export markets in Central America, reduce costs for American consumers, and reinforce the competitiveness of integrated regional supply chains that rely on U.S. cotton and other textiles,” Steve Lamar, AAFA president and CEO, said in a statement.
Similarly, the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) showed support for this development, as a way of shoring up what it calls a critical export market for the U.S. textile industry.
“ The CAFTA-DR region forms a vital co-production chain with the American textile supply chain, facilitating $11.3 billion in two-way trade in 2024 and supporting more than 470,000 U.S. workers in the domestic textile sector alone,” Kim Glas, CEO of NCTO, stated in a release.
“The U.S. -Western Hemisphere supply chains stand as a bulwark to China and other Asian countries,” Glas added.
CBS News quotes senior administration officials who said the frameworks are primarily focused on opening up markets to more U.S. goods and eliminating digital services taxes on U.S. companies.
